Marseille held by Lille, Lyon’s lean streak ends

Toulouse goalkeeper Olivier Blondel, fourth left, catches the ball in his side’s match against Olympique Lyonnais at the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, France, on Sunday.

Photo: AFP

Olympique de Marseille’s slim hopes of catching French title favorites Paris Saint-Germain were further diminished when they were held to a 0-0 draw at LOSC Lille Metropole on Sunday, while Olympique Lyonnais hauled themselves back into the UEFA Champions League places with a 3-1 victory at home to Toulouse.

An inspired Steve Mandanda was to thank as Marseille were fortunate to claim a point against in-form Lille, who had won on seven of their past eight outings prior to Sunday’s clash in northern France.

The result left second-placed Marseille nine points adrift of PSG with just six games remaining, with Lille three points behind Lyon in the race for the final Champions League spot.

Salomon Kalou should have given Lille the lead on 22 minutes when his close-range header was repelled by an instinctive stop by Mandanda.

Djibril Sidibe was the next Lille player to be thwarted by the France international, before Mandanda dived at full-stretch to deny Dimitri Payet on two occasions.

Lille goalkeeper Steeve Elana had to be alert as he made a sharp low save to deny Andre-Pierre Gignac early in the second half, but he was overshadowed by his opposite number as Mandanda superbly clawed away a Sidibe cross that was inadvertently diverted goalwards by Lucas Mendes.

Payet was then frustrated for a third time as the Marseille custodian turned away his curling free-kick to preserve a fifth successive clean sheet for Elie Baup’s side.

“We picked up a point and we didn’t concede a goal. We’re continuing our work to try and stay in the top three,” Baup said.

“[Mandanda] had an extraordinary match and that confirmed that he’s the best goalkeeper in Ligue 1,” the Marseille boss added.

Meanwhile, Baup’s counterpart Rudi Garcia was left feeling deflated, but was full of praise for Mandanda.

“It’s an illogical result. I’m disappointed for the players. What can I blame them for? We just came up against a fantastic goalkeeper. It was he who allowed Marseille to earn a point,” Garcia said. “You can only say that when you can’t win a match, which tonight was because of Mandanda, that it’s good not to lose.”

Earlier, Lyon halted a sequence of five matches without a win with a long overdue victory over Toulouse.

Clement Grenier netted an eighth-minute opener for Lyon, before Wissam Ben Yedder leveled for Toulouse, but second-half strikes from Bakary Kone and Bafetimbi Gomis secured the three points for Remi Garde’s side at Stade de Gerland.

Lyon subsequently climbed to third, two points point shy of Marseille, after arresting an alarming loss of form that extinguished their title hopes and had seen them slide to fifth. More importantly, they moved two points clear of OGC Nice and Rhone rivals AS Saint-Etienne for the third and final spot in next season’s Champions League, while Toulouse, who have yet to win in 19 trips to the Stade de Gerland in the top flight, stayed 11th.

“We needed three points because of the results of our rivals, Saint-Etienne and Nice in particular,” Lyon defender Mouhamadou Dabo said. “We had to win to continue to believe in our goals. After their goal, we didn’t give up. We stayed solid and in the second half we stepped it up a notch. We went in search of the win. It was essential.”